On Equilibration:
The Rose Cross Martinist
at the Still Center
Hugh McCague, Ph.D., SI
Star Trails overhead of the European Southern Observatory 3.6-meter telescope. The Pole Star, Polaris, is near the
apparent center of the concentric arcs of the star trails formed through time lapse photography. (ESO/A.Santerne,
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported) (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Star_trails_over_
the_ESO_3.6-metre_telescope.jpg)
artinists and Rosicrucians draw
profound meaning from the
rose. In like manner, Creation
is permeated with other great lessons
throughout its manifold works. One such
example, that humanity has noted for
millennia, is the Celestial Axis about which
Earth and, in appearance, the heavens rotate.
Conceptually, this Celestial Axis terminates
at the northern and southern Celestial Poles.
The northern heavenly point has been
Rosicrucian marked by a selected pole star that appears
Digest
close by. The prominent star that is close
No. 1
by, of course, changes over the millennia
2014 -
M
Supplement Page 8
due to the great cycles of the precession of
the equinoxes. Even during recent times,
practical astronomy continues to take the
viewpoint of an observer on the surface of
Earth noting the revolution of stars in the
night sky based on the Celestial Axis. This
movement is akin to the great rotation of
galaxies, and even some physicist today
view the entire universe as rotating on a
great axis.1 Traditionally, the Celestial Poles
and the rotation of Earth and the immense
apparent rotation about the central Celestial
Axis have, over the ages, reminded humans
of their Inner central place in the scheme of
the Divine Immensity and their unity with
the Universal Consciousness, the Grand
Architect of the Universe.
Confucius, Shakespeare, and
the Pole Star
Indeed, the human as the microcosm
of macrocosm is at the very center of existence. However, we need to realize that our
deeper nature, our Inner Self, not the outer and physical self, is at this great center of
the cosmos and Cosmic unity. In this manner, spiritual seekers, known in Martinism
as Men and Women of Desire, remember
that they have always been a center for the
gathering and radiation of Cosmic energy
that can be directed for the welfare of all.
In these points, we are edified by Confucius and his disciples as follows:
The Master said: He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the pole star,
which keeps its place while all the stars
turn around it. ... If the people be led
by laws, and uniformity sought to be
given them by punishments, they will
try to avoid the punishment, but have
no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given
them by the rules of propriety, they will
have the sense of shame, and moreover
will become good.2
In a similar spirit, and keeping in mind
a close affinity of Shakespeare with Sir
Franics Bacon, who was closely associated
with the Rosicrucian Tradition, we note
these words of the character the Roman
Emperor Julius Caesar in the play by the
same name:
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber’d
sparks,
They are all fire and every one doth
shine,
But there’s but one in all doth hold his
place:
So in the world; ‘tis furnish’d well with
men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshak’d of motion: and that I am he,
...3
Both of the above quotations remind
us too of the singular importance of theocracy and divine sovereignty that the aspirant awakens to within, expresses as nobility of character and seeks to manifest in
the world.
The Middle Path
As the aspirant works to live a balanced life, not going off in opposing directions or temptations, known in Martinsim
as advancing on the Middle Path between
the Pillars of Opposition, the aspirant enters into a state of equilibration. This state
unites the fully mature human with the
central pillar of Creation described by the
Kabbalah as the Pillar of Equilibrium. As
a child you may have noted how the spinning top can appear still, especially at its
center, similar to the stillness in the eye of
a hurricane.
In his song “Like a Hurricane,” the
modern-day troubadour and minstrel Neil
Young poetically expressed this point as a
metaphor for our spiritual centeredness:
I saw your brown eye
turning once to fire
You are like a hurricane
There’s calm in your eye.4
In the full depth experience of the human there is profound balance, known in
the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC as Peace
Profound. We then have great calmness,
selflessness, and the capacity to sense, direct, and radiate great energy and love for
Page 9
the accomplishment of duty, service, and
healing for ourselves and others.
In our daily lives, as the vicissitudes of
the hour appear to press on us, let us remember, and turn inward to attune with,
our central still place in Creation in union
with Omneity, the God Within. In this
manner, the masterly ideal of discharging
our duties with mature judgement, great
caring, and equanimity will become a daily
lived reality and an act of profound equilibration.
Rosicrucian
Digest
No. 1
2014 Supplement Page 10
ENDNOTES
1.Michael J. Longo, “Detection of a dipole in the
handedness of spiral galaxies with redshifts z ~
0.04,” Physics Letters B, 699, no. 4 (2011), 224–229,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
S0370269311003947. Tushna Commissariat, “Was
the universe born spinning?,” Physics World, July
25,
2011,
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/
news/2011/jul/25/was-the-universe-born-spinning.
Lior Shamir, “Handedness asymmetry of spiral galaxies with z < 0.3 shows cosmic parity violation and
a dipole axis,” Physics Letters B, 715, nos. 1–3 (2012),
25–29, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/S0370269312008052.
2.Lun Yü, Analects, II: I, II.III. II.I : trans. Joseph Needham, Science and civilisation in China, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1959), vol.III, 230; II.III:
Confucian analects : The great learning, and The doctrine
of the mean, trans. James Legge, (New York: Dover
Publications, 1971).
3.William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I,
60-70.
4.Neil Young, “Like a Hurricane” (1975). http://www.
azlyrics.com/lyrics/neilyoung/likeahurricane.html.
“STS51I-44-0052 Hurricane Elena, Gulf of Mexico September 1985,” (Image Science and
Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center, Public Domain) (Source: http://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hurricane_Elena.jpg).